With the prevalence of green energy concept, the related research and development of electric vehicles flourish. In general, the power source of the electric vehicle is the battery modules inside the vehicle. In order to make the electric vehicle be driven and achieve a certain driving force, normally a plurality of battery module are required to be configured for supplying enough power. A considerable space of the electric vehicle is occupied while configuring the plurality of battery modules, so a battery module configuration structure for an articulated electric bus becomes a topic to be developed.
In general, having different functions, hardware, and limitations under different national safety regulations in different types or models of electric vehicles makes the battery module configuration structures and methods different. The plural battery modules of small-sized electric vehicles (e.g. electric cars) are usually disposed in the trunk of the car body. However, being the public transportation vehicles, the large-sized electric vehicles (e.g. the electric motor bus or electric bus) usually have larger and heavier vehicle bodies, so the battery modules having larger capacity, larger sizes, heavier weights and larger amounts are required to provide enough driving force and endurance. In the past, due to the bottleneck and the insufficiency of the research and development of batteries and related hardware devices, such as charging stations or battery exchange stations, the research and development of electric buses are scarce and slow. In recent years, due to the breakthrough in the battery technology and the reinforcement of the related hardware, the research, the development and the application of electric buses are led to be gradually implemented. Currently, a general electric bus in the development of electric buses has a length of about 12 meters, and the plurality of battery modules are usually configured inside the vehicle of the electric bus, and disposed on two sides of the aisle and between the front axle and the rear axle. In order to maintain a certain amount of seats, a plurality of seats are disposed on the plural battery modules in an electric bus (i.e. the seats located at two sides of the aisle are disposed on the plural battery modules), such that the seats of the electric bus have to be elevated a certain height, thereby affecting the comfort of the passengers while sitting on the seats. An ladder is also required so as to be disposed on the exit/entrance or near the seats, which causes that the passengers have to use the ladder, and further the pick-up time and the drop-off time are increased, thereby affecting the travel time of the electric bus and being inconvenient for wheelchair access. In addition, when the electric bus is waded through water or splashed by rain in traveling, it is easy to be damped or moisture-intruded due to the arrangement position and method of the battery modules, thereby affecting the lifetime of the battery modules and the safety of the electric bus. Moreover, when the electric bus is impacted or an accident is occurred, the probability of damage is increased due to the arrangement position and method of the battery modules, thereby affecting the structure and safety of the vehicle body. In particular, the heat-dissipation efficiency cannot be enhanced by directly air-conditioning because of the arrangement position and method of the battery modules of the electric bus.
In recent years, the articulated bus is widely popularized and applied because the articulated bus has greater carrying capacity, which can reduce the costs of high-cost hardware buildings such as MRT or LRT. The articulated bus consists of two rigid compartments jointed with each other, and the total length of the articulated bus is about 18 meters. A passenger can move through the two rigid compartments as free as taking MRT. About 120 to 200 people can be simultaneously carried by the articulated bus. The articulated bus is usually utilized for downtown or airport accessing in replace of MRT or LRT as a quick, large-amount and short-distance public transport. Under this circumstance, the articulated bus is commonly a low-floor articulated bus. The so-called “low-floor” means that there is no stairs/ladders disposed from the front door (near the driver's seat in the first rigid compartment) to the aisle in front of the shaft region of the second rigid compartment along the aisle of the first rigid compartment, and the floors of the first rigid compartment and the second rigid compartment are planes. In other words, it is convenient for a passenger to get on/off without a ladder quickly, and it allows a wheelchair to access. However, the research and development of the articulated bus is still incomplete. Meanwhile, in the development of the articulated bus, the battery module configuration structures and methods have to be considered according to the requirements of the public transport, the hardware conditions and limitations of the vehicle body, the general specifications of countries, the rapidity and convenience of changing up battery power, the convenience and security of passengers and space utilizations, thereby reducing and avoiding the aforementioned problems. Therefore, there is a need of providing an improved battery module configuration structure for an articulated electric bus in order to eliminate the above drawbacks.